Menifee’s City Council may have not only just made a pivotal decision in the city’s young history, it could be setting precedent.

With Tuesday's decision to approve former Temecula City Manager Shawn Nelson's executive consultant contract, Councilman Wallace Edgerton believes Menifee is moving in on the ground floor of a paradigm shift that could save cities money on benefits and severance packages and allow elected officials to make objective decisions when they hire, fire and retain their chief executives.

Call it reciprocal management, Edgerton said.

“This could be the prototype for cities in the future,” Edgerton said before the council unanimously approved Nelson as a consultant who will work alongside Interim City Manager Rob Johnson.

Edgerton added: “There’s a lot of advantages to working this way because once you hire a new city manager, you’ve put your feet in cement.”

Menifee, however, isn’t doing that.

Instead, the young city is fostering staff and municipal development under the watchful eye of Nelson, who helped build freeways, libraries, civic centers and dozens of parks in more than two decades with Temecula, including 13 as its city manager.

In Menifee, Nelson will earn $126,000 a year, including $500 a month for expenses, Johnson will continue to serve as the interim city manager at an annual salary of about $160,000 and the council will monitor how this team concept plays out for a 4-year-old city looking for stability in both its short- and long-term leadership.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how this works out,” Councilman John Denver said. “Let’s give Rob some time and let’s give Shawn some time with his tasks and see how it goes.”

One thing’s for sure: Nelson’s earning power continues to thrive just a few years removed from making more than $330,000 annually as Temecula’s chief executive.

With his executive consultant contract with Menifee and the paychecks that he will collect through March 2014 because of the amount of paid time off that he accrued as a high-ranking employee upon his leaving the city of Temecula in 2011, Nelson will earn about $390,000 over the next 12 months.

For all that money and all the praise heaped on Nelson over the last couple of weeks, Councilman Greg August cited a constituent’s letter when he said Nelson ought to make Menifee “glow in the dark.”

“That’s the goal,” Nelson said from the audience.

Although the new Johnson-Nelson salary combo -- $286,000 -- compares to the $270,000 to $288,000 that former City Manager Bill Rawlings and Johnson were budgeted to receive, the city will save a considerable amount because it will not owe Nelson any kind of health benefits or severance packages that traditionally come with employment contracts.

With its last permanent city manager, for instance, the city paid Rawlings nearly $184,000 as part of his severance package, in addition to nearly two years of health, dental, vision and life insurance, as well as sick and vacation hours earned while he was on the job from January 2011 until November 2012.